Summary: The church needs to be creative in accomplishing her mission.

(freely adapted from Craig Groeschel’s It: How Churches and Leader Can Get it and Keep it)

“YOU’LL DO ANYTHING FOR IT”

OPEN

After taking a break last week to honor our mothers, we’re back into our series – IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It. The first message was called, “What Is It?” We defined it this way – “It is what God does through a rare combination of certain qualities found in his people.” Those qualities are: 1. A passion for his presence 2. A deep craving to reach the lost 3. Sincere integrity 4. Spirit-filled faith 5. Down-to-earth humility 6. Brokenness.

Our second message began a study of the traits that marked churches that had it and learn how we can develop those traits in our congregation The first trait was a God-given, God-breathed vision and we said that “You Can See It Clearly.” The second trait was the importance of teamwork and we said that “We Experience It Together.”

We look at a third trait this morning: innovation. Innovation is important because “You’ll Do Anything For It”. Someone said, “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what

you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.”

Wikipedia defines innovation as the process of making improvements by introducing something new. If there is any group in the world that should be motivated to make improvements by reflecting God’s creative nature, it should be Christians.

The Latin term for expressing the idea that human beings are created in the image of God is Imago Dei. Since we are made in the image of God, who is a creative creator, we too can conceive creative ideas.

Psychologist, physician, and consultant Edward de Bono said, “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

When we are creative, we reflect God. Creativity leads to innovation and innovative churches tend to have it. It is born out of their passion to please God, reach people, and help those in need. Increasing passion produces increasing creativity to reach people.

The apostle Paul obviously had it. And he often did things in new ways. He changed his approach to reach different people. 1 Cor. 9:19-23 – “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the

law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.

To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am

under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have

become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the

gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” This morning, let’s take a look together at some principles about innovation.

PASSION CREATES MOTIVATION WHICH LEADS TO INNOVATION

What would you say if I asked you, “Could you come up with a hundred thousand dollars by the end of the week?” Chances are, unless you are mega-rich, you’d probably say, “Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?”

Why? Because in your mind, I just asked you to do the impossible. You might be thinking, “There is no way I could come up with that kind of money. I can barely pay my bills.” If that’s your reaction, you’d be like most people.

Let’s do another imaginary exercise. Think about the people you love the most in the world. Your short list might include your spouse, your children, your parents, your grandchildren, and some very close friends. Pick one of those people. Get them in your mind.

Now, suppose I told you that your special loved one is very sick. I’m not talking about the stomach virus kind of sick or even a bad cold kind of sick. I’m talking about the “you’ve got less than a month to live” kind of sick.

Imagine that the doctors are saying that your loved one has no chance of living beyond that month unless you get them a very rare shot by the end of the week. And because the shot is so rare, it’s very expensive. Money just became less of an object. So you ask, “How much is it?” And the sober reply is, “One hundred thousand dollars.”

Remember, just a minute ago, you thought finding a hundred thousand dollars in a few days was impossible and you weren’t even going to try. But now, you’re perspective has changed. Even though it’s going to be extremely difficult, you’re going to work as hard as possible to get the money. You might get a home equity loan. You might call a rich relative. You might sell everything you own. You might even consider knocking off a bank. (I hope not but the thought may have just crossed your mind).